1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pack for an article, in particular an article containing a cosmetic product.
2. Discussion of Background
Packs for articles can come in many shapes, such as parallelepipedal or cylindrical shapes. The shape is generally a function of the shape of the article that is to be contained within the pack. Parallelepipedal packs, or at least packs having two flat faces, offer the advantage that they can be stacked during transport and also on shelving in shops, which is not the case with cylindrical packaging.
It has consequently been proposed, particularly in EP 0 322 259, to provide a pack of a generally cylindrical shape comprising along the entire height of its side wall a groove as well as a rib. When several of these packs are stacked, the rib of a first pack lies in the groove of a second pack. The stack obtained with such packs is relatively stable.
However, the cylindrical shape is obtained by molding which means that it is necessary to transport empty packs from the line on which they are molded to the line on which the article is packaged. FR 2752824 also describes a pack formed by two shells that are fastened to one another and whose shape is obtained by molding. Because such packs are fairly bulky, the volume that has to be transported is large, making transport costs relatively high even though only empty packs are transported.
In order to reduce the space occupied by packaging during its transportation, there are generally used packs in the form of cartons that are obtained from a precut blank which is folded to produce the final shape. Blanks can be transported flat, which means that they occupy very little space. The cartons are then erected just before or at the same time as the article to be packaged is placed inside them.
However, a precut blank can only be used to produce parallelepipedal or cylindrical cartons such as those illustrated for example in FR 2 777 865, U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,271 or EP 0 949 151.